Cleaned Up Crüe

Luxury cars — a Lamborghini, a Porsche, a Karma — line the driveway of a spacious two-story home, secluded at the top of a private road in Los Angeles. Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil and John 5 of Mötley Crüe are camped out here for the day, talking about tour dates and their Cancelled EP. It’s fun to play a game of “match the motor to the Mötley.”

It’s not fun to be under the skylight of the house when Tommy and John sneak up there and the latter moons us below. This feels out of character for John, but tracks for the Crüe, with whom 5 has been playing since 2022. The accomplished guitarist has stepped nimbly into the high-heeled boots of the group’s former guitarist, Mick Mars — albeit with platform crocs.

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John 5 is stage-ready in head-to-toe black, with the Crüe’s pentagram stenciled on his pants. In ripped jeans, black T-shirt, a grip of necklaces, bandana tied around his forehead and another hanging from his belt loop, Nikki Sixx looks primed also. In contrast, in a blazer and a button shirt, Vince Neil looks like he’s headed into a business meeting. All three hide behind designer shades. But Tommy Lee is shades-free and wearing skinny camouflage jeans and a white T-shirt. Besides John, who sports a cosmetically applied deathly pallor, the others are tanned.

The three original members sit shoulder-to-shoulder with lost expressions on their faces. They can’t hear anything if you don’t shout, a result of being insistent on no ear protection during their shows. It takes a few tries to find the right volume level to carry a conversation. In the meantime, John pinch hits for them. Smooth responses slide out of him, diplomatic and appropriate.

Once Sixx hears what’s being asked, he responds with passion, unfiltered and excited. Lee searches the air for words and is slow to get his thoughts out.

Vince says nothing — at all.

Summer of 2024, Mötley Crüe embarked on a tour headlining festivals like Welcome to Rockville, Summerfest, Louder Than Life and Aftershock. In addition, they played their own shows at county fairs, resorts and arenas, culminating with gigs at the Troubadour, Roxy and Whisky on L.A.’s Sunset Strip, where they got their start.

The Crüe returned to the road with a vengeance a couple of years ago. They co-headlining The Stadium Tour with Def Leppard in 2022 and continued with The World Tour in 2023. This is a long way from the group’s grubby beginnings in Los Angeles’ early metal scene, which they remember fondly.

“We were selling out everything, including the Whisky three nights in a row,” recalls Sixx. “We took a chance and booked Santa Monica Civic, Pasadena Civic and Glendale Civic. Those are 3000-seaters and we sold them out — without a record deal. Radio wasn’t involved. The media wasn’t involved. It was such a cool time because it was just us and the fans, and that was special.”

It was a huge jump from the auditoriums to the US Festival in 1983, where Mötley Crüe found themselves. “Our band was on top of the fucking world,” says Sixx whose sarcasm is so sly, it slips right past me. “We stayed at the Red Lion Inn! We had to share rooms with two twin-sized beds. I felt so fancy. We stayed up all fucking night. We wrecked that place. We were on early and we were still drinking, or hung over. They took us to a helicopter. It was like out of a movie. You’re sitting with your band. You’re flying over 300,000 people, drinking Jack Daniels. ‘If this is as good as it gets, I’m totally good. I’ll be able to tell my grandkids about this.’”

By then, Mötley Crüe had one album to their name: 1981’s platinum Too Fast for Love. The 2020s marks the group’s fourth decade and their having sold more than 100 million records, and having had over 20 Top 40 hits, three Grammy nominations, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, multiple best-selling books, including the ultimate rock star excess tome, The Dirt, which was developed into the 2019 Netflix biopic of the same name. The group’s accomplishments are significant, but their checkered reputations, dated as they are, loom large in their legend. There has rarely been a point in time when individually or as a group, they haven’t had a lawsuit pending. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will not consider inducting them according to Sixx, who told Kerrang! “…we were told by the Hall Of Fame that we would never get in, because of how we’ve acted, so that’s kind of it.”

It’s hard to live down a very public and scandalous — but unapologetic — past.

But today Nikki Sixx lives a productive domestic life, mainly in Wyoming, from where he hosts his syndicated radio show, pens books, writes songs and is involved with nonprofits. Lee has settled down with his wife, internet personality and podcast host Brittany Furlan, and is a sponge for new music. Neil is, in fact, a businessman with numerous ventures. John 5, revered as a musician, generates nothing but good will, and always has.

“The Crüe has always been in my ears and eyes. They are a part of my life,” he says.

Nikki first recorded with John on Meat Loaf’s “A Monster is Loose” 20 years ago. They continued collaborating, including on Dolly Parton’s “Bygones.” 5 also co-wrote the three new Mötley Crüe songs from the biopic: “The Dirt (Est. 1981),” “Ride With the Devil” and “Crash and Burn.” The three-song Cancelled EP is mostly a result of his fresh energy in the group, and is produced by the group’s longtime collaborator, Bob Rock. In addition to the blistering “Dogs of War” and “Cancelled,” the EP features a raucous cover of the Beastie Boys “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party),” which plays like it is the Crüe theme song.

Recording with Mötley Crüe was the first time John 5 recorded, “live off the floor” in the studio he says. “It’s rare to me. I do a lot of sessions. Usually, we’re in the control room. We were all in the [recording] room, knocking it out.”

“Getting the raw energy, that’s cool,” says Sixx. “We used to record to tape. Record out! We had to be able to sing it, play it, top to bottom.”

“There’s no way that you can capture that energy unless you’re all doing it together,” says Lee. “If we recorded songs separately, it would not sound like that. It’s impossible.”

New music from Mötley Crüe is unexpected and curiosity piquing. But perhaps the true draw is the Crüe lore. To that end, there is the Crüeseum, which opened its virtual doors in January 2024. Culled from the band’s personal archives, fans will find everything from memorabilia and mementos to classic photos, flyers, postcards, ticket stubs and much more. 

“Once I got to my storage unit, I was like, ‘Can you bring a dumpster down here?’” says Sixx. “I had so much shit. Why do I have a fucking doorknob from 1987? A flat tire in the corner? I am paying money to store this. I do that in my closet. I have 482 black T-shirts. How many do I really need?”

In his unit he also found original lyrics written on a torn piece of paper and countless other classic Crüe items, as did Tommy and Vince, who has multiple units.  “[Vince] is a pack rat hoarder. He has everything Mötley you can ever imagine,” Tommy says.

“He needs to open his own museum,” adds Nikki. To which Vince admits, “I have four or five storage units I haven’t even gone through.”

Whether or not you were a glam metal fan in the ‘80s, Mötley Crüe was an unmissable part of life, especially for Gen Xers. “I’m noticing everywhere, so many people, interviewers, journalists, critics, documentarians, people who are in very different positions, they grew up with us,” says Tommy. “It’s strange, but it’s awesome at the same time.”

Mötley Crüe are in talks about doing a documentary, regarding which Sixx says: “You’ve got to be willing to be honest. It’s not about ‘the dirt.’ It’s not about drugs or relationships or some of the stuff that we’ve put ourselves through or been through. The band is really about the music.

“Then you can build on it from there.”

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.